Today the UN’s International Court of Justice said Kosovo’s independence didn’t break any rules since there are no international laws that prohibits declarations of independence. This is very important for many stateless nations in the world, including Catalonia. The list of countries against Kosovo’s independence includes China, Serbia, Russia and Spain. Spain’s fear was that this ruling would create a precedent that stateless nations such as Euskal Herria (Basque Country) or Catalonia could use to accelerate their processes of independence.

This is excellent news and with very good timing since only two weeks ago Spain’s Constitutional Court sentenced that Catalonia has no right to organise referendums and therefore the possibility of a referendum of independence was shut leaving only the declaration of independence. Today’s sentence does indeed create a precedent in international law and clarifies that the international community would support Catalonia should we decide to follow the same path.

Catalan independentist association Reagrupament has been defending for years that this is the best choice for Catalonia and precisely this week a call to all Catalan independentists to unite to achieve this target was done by Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència, led by Laporta, López Tena and Bertran. Reagrupament have already showed their support and cooperation.

Congratulations to Kosovo!

Update on July 24th:

To clarify things you can download the full sentence here, in english. The precedent the sentence creates refers, in plural and in general to declarations of independence. Let’s read some of the articles:

80 “Thus, the scope of the principle of territorial integrity is confined to the spehere of relations between states” Meaning the principle of territorial integrity doesn’t apply if a secession comes from within a state.

81 “…no general prohibition against unilateral declarations of independence may be inferred…”

84 “For the reasons already given, the Court considers that general international law contains no applicable prohibition of declarations of independence”

Now people can still argue Kosovo and Catalonia are different cases, which is true. But the above points of this sentence effectively are indeed applicable to any future declaration of independence.

Photo: AMWRanes

As we speak the biggest demonstration for the independence of Catalonia is taking place. According to the organisers one and a half million, according to the police, more than one million. The whole of Catalonia has been today one voice calling for independence. You can draw your own conclusions.

Update:

A beautiful video montage from the demonstration published by TV3, the Catalan TV

And a sample of international coverage, from Euronews:

http://www.euronews.net/2010/07/10/catalans-out-in-force-to-defend-self-rule

As we speak I’m still impressed by the documentary “Adéu, Espanya?” just watched online on live broadcast from the Catalan TV3. It portraits the realities in Greenland, Quebec, Scotland and Catalonia and the current situation on their paths to a possible future independence. I think this is the first time a catalan television discusses this topic so openly. The documentary compares our situation to other national realities. There’s a bunch of excellent interviews, including Scotland’s Primer Minister, Alex Salmond and excerpt of the history of every country, very enlightening and entertaining.

To me the most important message is that Catalonia is perfectly viable as an independent state, and refutes the only argument the unionists keep inisisting on that Catalonia would not be able to survive independently. The documentary proves that this is laughable because of Catalonia’s strong economy and vigorous cultural scene, not only it would survive but independence will improve Catalonia’s quality of life substantially.

On the other hand, it also shows how while the states containing the other countries in the documentary respect the national realities of Greenland, Scotland and Quebec and above all would respect their decision should they wish to become independent states in the Catalan case the Spanish State doesn’t. Also, Spain is the only country of the four that specifically threatens with and armed intervention in their constitution against a secession attempt.

Thank you TV3 and thank you Dolors Genovès, the director.

Unfortunately as we speak the documentary only includes Catalan subtitles and I don’t know if it will ever include english and since it’s not Youtube I don’t know hot to download it and do it myself. But I promise I’ll try. In any case, the production, soundtrack and photography are excellent and the panoramic views of the countries portrayed are reason enough to watch it.

Enjoy.

UPDATE on 2010/06/04:

Seems like the documentary was an absolute success: 733.000 people watched it on average, , audience leader in Catalunya and the most viewed showof the year on a thursday for TV3.

Also, the hashtag #adeuespanya to tweet about the documentary got to #1 in twitter trending topics in Spain! Awesome!

A poll published yesterday showed that 82.6% of Catalans want to democratically decide about the future of Catalonia and that 74% of the cast votes would go towards independence with the yes being chosen by 50.3% of the people. The poll was commissioned by the Generalitat and performed by UOC in a sample of 2600 people with a 2% error margin.

Independentism has been increasing in recent times in Catalonia, especially since the last Catalan Statute was negotiated. This law that defines Catalonia’s self government inside the Spanish State was heavily watered down once it reached the Spanish parliament and now rumours say that the Spanish Constitutional Court, a highly biased and repeatedly discredited court by their delay of more than 3 years to pass a sentence, will further cut down the Catalan Statute that already was popularly accepted in a referendum held in Catalonia.

This has had as the obvious consequence of generating more and more dissatisfaction and independentism in Catalonia since the Catalans perceive that their generosity towards Spain is not only not reciprocated but anticatalanism is a recurrent tool in Spanish politics as a means to gain votes.

The consequences of this strategy are showing in the polls and a great increase in the independentist option in the last few months reveals that Catalonia is walking towards organising itself as a new state inside the European Union.

Last September a little village, Arenys de Munt, organised a Referendum of Independence. The disproportionate reaction of the Spanish institutions gave the event a massive amount of publicity and now, on December the 13th, 170 villages and towns across Catalonia have organised themselves to hold similar referendums. More municipalities in Catalonia will hold referendums next February and April showing that independence is an important concern within the Catalan society and urging Catalan politicians to act.